Mothership Sci-Fi Horror RPG 1st Edition Boxed Set
Created by Alan Gerding
Everything you need to play Mothership® in one terrifying box.
Important Notes:
* Pre-orders will ship after the Kickstarter ships (eta Q2/Q3 2023)
* Pre-orders ship all together (we can't split up shipments and ship individual items)
* Shipping will be charged when the Pre-Order store closes (eta Q2/Q3 2023)
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Quick end of year update! Happy New Year!
over 1 year ago
– Wed, Jan 04, 2023 at 01:17:49 AM
Hey gang,
I hope everyone had a great holiday season! It’s been the sick zone over at the McCoy household and we’re just coming out of it now. So I hope the rest of you had a relatively quiet month.
The response to the Player’s Survival Guide, Warden’s Operations Manual, Gradient Descent, and the Mothership Companion App has been amazing. We’ve received phenomenal feedback via our form. We’ll be closing that form out this week on Tuesday, so if you have any other feedback or typpos you’ve found, please submit them before then.
We hoped to get Unconfirmed Contact Reports and the Shipbreaker’s Toolkit out this month, but weren’t able to accomplish that unfortunately. We’ll be playing catchup in January, so expect a larger update going over everything then.
If you enjoyed the Mothership Companion App we’d love a review on the app store of your choice. We have a lot of other great features that will roll out alongside the boxed set release and we’re excited to show all of you.
Regardless! Thank you all for hanging in there with us and thank you for your incredible patience and support. It’s been a long journey but we’re excited for 2023 and to get these boxed sets in your hands!
(WIP) Map of Greta Base from Another Bug Hunt.
As always, if you have any issues at all, please email Tyler at [email protected] and we’ll get you all sorted out. Tyler’s done a phenomenal job staying on top of everything. So if you’ve got any issues at all, don’t hesitate.
Until next month! Stay safe and happy new year!
WOM, PSG, GD PDFs + Mothership Companion App
over 1 year ago
– Thu, Dec 01, 2022 at 07:34:32 PM
Hey gang,
Yesterday we started sending out the files for the updated Player’s Survival Guide, Warden’s Operation Manual, and Gradient Descent. Our plan was to send out the Shipbreaker’s Toolkit, but our family all got sick as a result of Thanksgiving festivities, so we’re running a little late on that one. Hopefully we will have an update on that in a week or so, depending on when we’re back up and running.
Some important information about the PDFs
These files we’re releasing aren’t print-ready final, but they’ve very close. Here are some things you may notice while reading them.
Art pieces and styling aren't finalized, and there’s at least one notable missing piece (from the Example of Play section in the PSG). We’re still getting final art from everywhere.
Final proofreading has not been done. We’ve done several passes but we’ll also be doing a print-pass once all the books have been completed, and there will be a final balancing pass to make sure all the numbers line up (across all the books, modules, pamphlets, etc.).
Page references have not been added. You’ll see several blocks that say “see pg. XX.X for details”. What does that mean? XX.X is our stand in for the page and section number. This is the last thing we add to the files, because up until the last minute content can change what page it’s on (or even what book it’s in!) and it’s a lot easier to search for XX.X than it is to crawl through each page reference and double check it.
Backerkit still has this annoying issue where some of you are getting double or triple the amount of downloads. They’re all the same, just different filenames. I’m going to take some time to look into this later this week, and see if we can’t clean that whole thing up.
Some Deluxe Tier backers reported not getting their emails. Contact [email protected] if you’re having trouble locating your downloads, and we’ll get you sorted out.
Otherwise, the WOM and PSG are very, very close to being finished. We’ll correct a few typos, throw in the last piece of art or two, do a final pass on the numbers, and then those books are locked!
Everyone should have received a link to their downloads in their inbox (search for “Backerkit” or “Alan Gerding”). If you haven’t, please contact support!
Feedback
We want your feedback! We’d love to hear from you about any notes you have. The best way to get us feedback is to fill out this form. There are 15,000 of you and only a few of us, so this helps us collect responses from one space and collate them, so we make sure everything gets addressed during our revisions.
Today, we’ve also released the official Mothership Companion App. It has all the tools you need to quickly create and play characters during your Mothership games. You'll never have to remember to bring dice or a character sheet to a game again.
Streamlined character creation: creating a brand new character only takes seconds.
A powerful dice roller: whether it's Stat Checks, Saves, or you just need to roll 6d10, our in-app dice roller has you covered.
Easy inventory management: quickly buy, acquire, and organize any weapon, armor, or piece of equipment in the Player's Survival Guide.
Detailed status tracking: keep track of your Health, Wounds, Stress, ammo, and other conditions with just a few taps. No more erasing and re-writing over and over.
And that's just the free version. We also have Companion Pro, which adds some new killer features:
Unlimited characters: create as many characters as you want, track your High Score, and save the ones who have survived!
Import & Export: export your characters to pdf for printing, or back them up with a JSON file.
One-Click Character Creation: randomly generate an entire character with one tap, everything from Stats and Saves to their name and portrait.
Contractors: roll up and hire custom Contractors, fit them with equipment, and roll for them.
Custom Character portraits (coming soon): upload your own character portraits to make your character truly your own.
Night Void Theme (coming soon): take it easy on the eyes with our first custom theme: Night Void.
Errata
Thanks to discord user Dasconder for putting this together!
Character creation
Receive 2d20+25 for stats, up from 2d20 +20.
Wounds now start at 0, and count up. Functionally the same as before, but helps clarify.
Character sheet has been tuned up a bit.
Tactics skill has been removed.
Firearms now leads to command, a few changes like this to the Skill tree.
Weapons
Most weapons have had some tweaks or updates.
Smart rifle: DMG: 1D10 x 10 (was 1 wound), Ammo: 3 (was 12) Special: two-handed and heavy, Also you must make a body save or be knocked prone if you shoot and are not braced or laying down.(lost armor piercing).
Pulse Rifle. Ammo: 5 (up from 3)
Combat Shotgun: Crit: Gunshot. (was Gunshot/Blunt force). Special: 1d10 at long range (was 2d10).
SMG: Shots: 4 (down from 5)
Revolver: Damage:1d10[+] (up from 1d10)
Flare Gun: Critical: Fire / Explosion [-] ( down from fire/explosion)
Tranq Pistol: Special: If DMG is dealt, Body save or fall unconscious. (in the previous version it didn’t require DMG to be dealt)
Laser Cutter: Special: Gained Two-handed and Heavy
Flamethrower
Crit: Fire/explosion[+] (was just fire/explosion w/o advantage)
Replaced HMG with General Purpose Machine Gun. Does 4d10 [+] DMG.
Armor
Most types of armor now add radiation shielding. No AP values were changed.
Vacc Suit: Gained Rad Shielding.
Hazard Suit: Gained Rad Shielding.
Advanced Battle Dress: Added Rad shielding. Exoskeleton Weave now gives [+] On all Strength checks. Now comes with a HUD.
Rules
Rulebook re-organized for clarity.
Space travel rules moved to the SBT.
Salary moved to the WOM.
Removed carrying capacity Strength/10 rule.
Dice notation for Qdvantage/Disadvantage changed. Fear[+] Save is now Fear Save [+].
Reworked language around Wounds/Health. You lose Health and gain Wounds. When you gain more Wounds than your maximum, you make a Death Check.
Stat Checks and Saves clarified to be “less than” only (equal to or above is a fail).
Added block on High Score.
Added section on Skill training, medical treatment, and Shore Leave. All much clearer.
Clarification to Damage and Cover rules.
Removed dealing “current Wounds” DMG from melee combat as it was too confusing.
A 90-99 is always a failure.
Stress and Panic: on the Panic Table, Laser Focus is now Adrenaline Rush. In addition to the 2d10 min of [+] you also reduce Stress by 1d5.
Comfort Saves: replaced by a Rest Save (made w/ the lowest Save instead).
Cover: Heavy Cover now provides 20 AP instead of giving the attacker [-].
Wound table: the Final 2ound column has been removed entirely. Now the warden rolls THE DEATH CUP!!! Also, any fatal 2ound on the rest of the table forces a roll on the Death Table with THE DEATH CUP!!!! Instead of instant death.
Range bands: Range bands have been renamed: Adjacent, Close, Long, and Out of Range. Distances are the same.
Radiation: is now very scary. Any armor with Radiation shielding protects against this entirely.
Level 1 is mechanically unchanged but may result in long-term problems (cancer, mutation).
Level 2. Does 1 DMG to all Stats and Saves every round (used to be 5dmg to STR and Body every 10 min).
Level 3 fatal. Every round Body Saves or takes a lethal dose (death in 1d5 days).
Ports and Shore Leave have been reworked. Shore Leave is just converting Stress into Saves now.
Mothership Unboxing on TKtv
Alan takes a look at a brand new shipment of Mothership gear on TKtv this week, including the brand new vinyl pamphlet bag! Definitely worth watching.
What’s next?
A little bit of catchup, as we’ll be working on getting the SBT in your hands as soon as possible along with UCR shortly after. Then we’re in the home stretch! As always, if you have any issues, please email Tyler at [email protected] and we’ll get you all sorted out.
Thanks so much for your support!!
Black Friday / Cyber Monday Mothership 0e Clearance Sale
over 1 year ago
– Mon, Nov 28, 2022 at 08:56:25 PM
Hey everyone,
We're having a huge Black Friday / Cyber Monday sale on our webstore starting right now!
From now until 11:59pm CST Monday November 28 we’re offering 50% off ALL Mothership 0e products on our webstore. That includes both official and 3pp releases! You must use the code ZERODAY at checkout. This offer only applies while supplies last.
We will NOT be re-stocking any 0e items, so once they're gone they are GONE.
Note: You do not need these items if you backed this kickstarter, they are for the previous edition but a lot of you might want to collect it before it's gone!
P.S. If you haven't pre-ordered the Mothership 1e boxed set, you can still get that here: http://survivesolvesave.com
PDFs Update
over 1 year ago
– Sat, Nov 19, 2022 at 12:05:27 AM
Hey gang,
Sorry for the slow communication. We’ve been pretty heads down trying to get everything ready. Let’s dive in!
We’ll be releasing the PDFs for the Player’s Survival Guide and the Warden’s Operations Manual on Cyber Monday (November 28th), along with we either the Shipbreaker’s Toolkit or Unconfirmed Contact Reports depending on which one gets finished first. We’ll also release the 1e WIP for GD at the same time. We don’t have Another Bug Hunt done quite yet. Once we release what we’ve got at the end of November we should have a better idea on the timeline for the remaining books.
Skill training is getting its own section in the PSG now. Art by Zach Vaupen.
We really appreciate everyone’s patience as we get everything polished for you! It’s been a long road but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel!
What’s new?
So we had a lot of great feedback on the WIP PSG and we’ve made some great changes! The biggest one involves Shore Leave. It used to be a sort of all encompassing downtime section, but now has been split up into different sections entirely. Shore Leave covers only converting Stress to Saves. You visit a Port, spend some time and money, make a Sanity Save and then convert some Stress to improved Saves. Simple!
Beautiful new art for our Violent Encounters chapter by Jota Cravo.
We separated Medical Treatment off into its own section with more specific treatments with their own costs and timelines. Same goes for Skill Training, which is now getting its own separate section. Skill Training now happens slowly and automatically over time. If the timelines seem long, don’t worry. We talk about that in the Warden’s Operations Manual.
Near final image of the Salvage Cutter from the Shipbreaker's Toolkit. Every ship is getting a spread like this with a few maps and cutaways as well as a complete statblock and a key to the map. The whole thing is made so you can pick up and play.
We’ve made some minor tweaks to balance and made characters slightly stronger than they were in 0e, which I think will feel like a welcome boost to most players.
We’ve also got a ton of new art in the book which we’re super excited to show you. Additionally, we have some other exciting news.
Introducing the Mothership Companion App
On Cyber Monday we’ll also be debuting a new free app for android and ios: the Mothership Companion App. This is a character creator and dice roller for Mothership, so you’ll never need anything other than your phone with you to play a game of Mothership.
WIP character page of the Companion App.
How did this happen? We were approached about six months ago by developer Andrew Sheridan and designer Seth Kinkaid who had developed the app on their own and wanted to release it as a third party app. Alan and I loved it so much that we asked them to release it as the official app for Mothership. We handed over our assets and the updated rules. Then, they went off to work. We really love what they came up with and we think you will too.
WIP Dice Roller for the Companion App.
The Player’s Survival Guide will continue to be a free PDF download and we hope having a free app will also help people jump into a game who might not have before, or otherwise couldn’t afford it.
So what’s next?
We’ll be sending out backerkit downloads for the PSG, WOM, GD, and either UCR and/or the SBT on Monday, November 28. We’ll also be sending out a feedback form for everyone. As we get everything ready for print we’ll be doing a deep dive not only for proofreading errors but also a re-tuning of the balance and economics of everything in Mothership. This includes every module, every pamphlet, as well as the core rules. So we’ll have a link you can follow if you spot something that doesn’t seem right. Then we’ll have a member of our editing team collate your feedback so we can get everything addressed.
You’ll see our customer service rep, Tyler J. Brown, more active here on Kickstarter as he helps to fill in the communication gaps and keep you guys informed on a comment-by-comment basis. Because of his work I can focus on getting everything finalized. So please give him a warm welcome!
The back cover of the Shipbreaker's Toolkit features this handy spec sheet with the relative sizes of all the ship's as well as their stat blocks. If you need a generic ship, you don't need to build one or roll one up at all.
Alright, we’ll be back in touch in a week and half! Stay tuned!
Aug/September Production Update, Timeline updated, Whitebox prototypese
almost 2 years ago
– Wed, Sep 14, 2022 at 05:47:06 AM
Hey gang,
A lot’s going on in the Motherverse so let’s dive in!
We just received our whitebox prototype from the manufacturer. What is a whitebox? It’s essentially an assembled version of all the components in the game without any printing. This is so that we can check for fit, quality, finish, that kind of thing, and make sure everyone is talking about the same thing before moving forward. It’s a big step for us! So, let’s look at the pictures and talk about the changes we’re making.
Here you can see the core set and the storage box, side by side. These are essentially the exact same size box, but with different art. The only change here is we’re thinking about increasing the box thickness just a bit to make it more durable and longer lasting. Right now it’s about the thickness of the original D&D box or the Traveler box, which is a little substandard these days.
Next you can see the five books: the Player’s Survival Guide, Warden’s Operations Manual, Unconfirmed Contact Reports, Shipbreaker’s Toolkit, and Another Bug Hunt that will all go into the Core Set. They fit nice and snug! We’ve even increased the page count on both the WOM, SBT, and UCR just through developing the books. More art, more content, more everything. It’s a lot to pack into this box.
Here you can see the core set Warden’s Screen and the poster underneath. We were able to upgrade the quality of the Warden’s Screen to have a full wrap-around here, so you don’t have any exposed edges, except at the folds, and even then it’s minimal. One change though, this is a Z-fold, and we want a gate-fold, so we’ll be updating that.
Beneath the box and screen you can also see the poster, which folds up really nicely. I’m going to be asking them about various paper types to see what our options are. Paper’s in a weird place globally right now, but so far I love what I see.
Laying on top of the box you can see the two punchboards. These don’t have any dies cut into them right now, we’re just testing thickness and that they fit in the box. Which they do and they look great.
The only thing you don’t see here are the dice and the bases for the punchboard tokens, which will go in ziplock bags on top.
We’ll be talking to the manufacturers about adding a liiiiittle bit more depth to the box so we can comfortably fit the dice and bases. We’re not sure if we’ll be able to fit all the punchboards assembled in the box, but we’ll take a look at it. Box size is one of the main costs of a game, so we have to be picky.
Next up we have the Deluxe Set, which looks great. Here you can see the box, which is going to be our first major change. It’s essentially twice as wide as the core set and the same depth, which is what we showed in our mock-ups. First, we’ll be increasing the thickness of the box both for durability but also to give it a more premium feel. Next we’ll be increasing the size of the box, likely both in depth, width, and height, and here’s why:
So, everything fits perfectly in the box, no complaints. But it’s all just loose in the box, it doesn’t feel very deluxe so to speak. So cost permitting we’ll be adding in a plastic vacuum tray that holds the books nice and snug, which will add to the width and height a bit. If we can afford the increase in size and weight we’ll also add some wells in there to hold the dice and other components, similar to a board game. This will take some back and forth with the manufacturers to see what’s the best cost/feature balance, but we really want this deluxe box to sing, so we’re taking another whack at it to make sure it’s perfect.
Here you can see all the deluxe box components (except for the dice/token bases). We have larger token sheets, so we’ll be including more tokens in the deluxe set, more characters, maybe some more monsters or ships. And then of course it has a whopping EIGHT books: the Player’s Survival Guide, Warden’s Operations Manual, Unconfirmed Contact Reports, the Shipbreaker’s Toolkit, Another Bug Hunt, Dead Planet, A Pound of Flesh, and Gradient Descent. I really think with just this box you could easily run years and years of games.
We still haven’t charged cards so if during these updates you see something you like, you have plenty of time to go into backerkit and increase your pledge. If you’re not sure how to do that, or have any other questions, please feel free to e-mail Tyler at [email protected]. He’s been just awesome at getting back to people really quickly and walking you through any questions you may have. A total godsend on a kickstarter this large!
Timeline update
Unfortunately, we’re not going to hit our November ship date. Supply chain issues, manufacturing changes, adding new content into the game, have all stretched our timeline out longer than we would have liked. Our current plan is to release most (if not all) of the books to you digitally in November and then start shiping in Q1 of 2023. If any of that changes we’ll be sure to let you know.
Free adventure
As an apology for missing the deadline, we’ll also be releasing a free PDF adventure to everyone who backed (no matter what level) by Luke Gearing, tentatively called ORPHANS. The adventure has been written and will be moving to layout soon. The entire process is being handled by a separate team than those of us working on the boxed set, so it’s not setting our timeline back any further. We’re pretty pumped about this one and we think it’ll be a great new addition to your Mothership game. We’ll let you know when we have a release date for that in an upcoming update!
Until then, check out some of the newest WIP spreads.
TKtv
We’ve got some awesome new content up on our YouTube channel, including a few unboxing videos of some our amazing third party content, definitely give it a watch if you haven’t already.
Everything else
Other than that, we’ve still got Gradient Descent to get out to you, which hopefully I will get to soonTM, I know there’s a lot of you who have been looking forward to it. As always, thank you for backing, thank you for your patience, thank you for being such great fans! We can’t wait to get this game in your hands, and we’re excited to hear what you all think!
